We Are Not Black: Somalis Deny Being Black & It’s BACKFIRING!

Added: 2026-05-26

[00:00:00]We are Somalis, not black. There, I said it.

[00:00:04]All right? Everyone is keep asking, "Why don't Somalis want to identify as black?"

[00:00:10]It's simple.

[00:00:11]The term black was never a word to begin with.

[00:00:17]Yeah. The term black, it didn't come from Africa. It came from America.

[00:00:23]Hello.

[00:00:24]Right? It was designed to separate slaves from Europeans.

[00:00:30]It was not designed to celebrate identity.

[00:00:34]It was to control it.

[00:00:37]Yeah. So, when Somalis came to the West, we didn't suddenly become black. We were labeled.

[00:00:44]All right? Imposed.

[00:00:47]And we embrace it.

[00:00:49]Chill like that.

[00:00:51]Chill like that. Sheesh.

[00:00:54]Somalis had identity before race. All right? Our identity comes from our ancestors, not appearance.

[00:01:03]Yeah. All right? Blackness is a Western category. Somalia is a civilization.

[00:01:11]Big difference.

[00:01:12]We're Somalis.

[00:01:15]Chill like that.

[00:01:17]Chill like that. As a Somali man, I am not black because I fear Allah and I'm a Muslim. Somalis are black. They are both African and black. For the love of God, are Somalis black? You find Somalis that say they are and some are saying they're not. All right, are Somalis black? Let's answer that real quick. Firstly, what is black? It's not tribe. It's a racial category that came from colonialism.

[00:01:44]Right? To group people with a darker complexion. Chill like that. Right?

[00:01:48]Whether you're from Caribbean, West Africa, or in America. Chill like that.

[00:01:53]Right? So, with that in mind, Somalis, you're black through job applications, through census. So, the next time you're getting a job application, go ahead and select that black. Because there's not a check mark for Somali or your clan. Racial category is a thing in the west. Chill like that.

[00:02:09]That's fine. All right, so what is the Somali identity then, right? Somali identity is experienced through the language, through the culture. Right?

[00:02:17]Yeah, home all the way.

[00:02:19]Uh Horn of Africa.

[00:02:21]Right? And deep down the Somali identity is more clan than race. That's the reality. All right, here's what I think.

[00:02:28]I think Somalis are Somalis, right? In the sense of identity, culture, uh language. Chill like that, right? You go to the west, and now you're giving a racial label. Go ahead and take it, embrace it, enjoy and add value to that experience of that label, right? Chill like that, cuz the reality is if most people had that option to select Somali or whatever the other, you know, option, you probably wouldn't have this conversation.

[00:02:53]Let's be honest, right? So, the term black is low-key imposed and embraced at the same time because of this.

[00:03:00]So, embrace it, enjoy it, and add value to that experience of this label. Right?

[00:03:04]This additional layer of label. That's how I see it. Chill like that.

[00:03:10]I don't think you are going to be happy with me, but let me start.

[00:03:15]>> [laughter] >> Afri- Somalis deny Africanity. They do not want to be identified as African.

[00:03:26]They want to be Arabs.

[00:03:28]And the Arabs are pushing them.

[00:03:31]>> [laughter] >> There's a dilemma here.

[00:03:35]You see? There's identity crisis here now.

[00:03:39]I don't have identity crisis.

[00:03:41]I'm an African, and there are so many Africans in Africa. I don't have identity crisis. You can call me whatever you want.

[00:03:50]But I have identity.

[00:03:52]You do not have identity now because the Arabs have refused you. They are telling you ya abid.

[00:04:03]And you're better off to accept me as your brother rather than going TO AN ARAB.

[00:04:08]>> [laughter] [applause] [applause] >> SO, WE CALL SOMALIS IN that article Africanity by accident of geography.

[00:04:29]This group consists of those who happen to be in Africa without their wish to be there.

[00:04:35]Individuals who found themselves living in the continent by virtue of circumstances beyond their control.

[00:04:43]In other words, circumstantial Africans.

[00:04:48]Members of this group are not pleased to be identified with negritude or blackness. Be it by value, ideology, culture, ethnicity, or any other quality except by the accident of being in in in Africa.

[00:05:06]Of existing on the continent. So, the only time that a Somali nomad or a pastoralist and I have nothing against nomads, eh?

[00:05:17]The only time he or she will accept to be an African or she or he may instantly turn around from Arab to Africa is if she or he encounters discrimination of identity, denial from that group. And I have seen this in Egypt.

[00:05:41]I have seen it in Saudi Arabia, and I have seen it in Canada. I'm a Canadian by, you know, naturalization.

[00:05:50]You see?

[00:05:51]So, in Canada, they come to complain. I was teaching at York University in Canada.

[00:06:03]And I tell them, "Welcome to THE REAL WORLD."

[00:06:08]>> [applause] [laughter] [applause] >> YOU KNOW, IN CANADA, I USED TO TEACH at York University. Some of my students, they come to me and they say, "Prof, these white people they discriminate us. This is not right." Me, this this, I said, "Yes, welcome to the real world."

[00:06:30]Because I have training for discrimination you gave me.

[00:06:35]Back home, you gave me that training. To me, THIS PIECE OF CAKE.

[00:06:40]>> [laughter] >> I NEVER FELT EVEN SINGLE DAY in Canada that I was discriminated. Never.

[00:06:50]Because I was already prepared by you guys.

[00:06:55]As the person who assumes that the purpose of discussion is the pursuit of truth.

[00:07:02]Now, he continues, "Such an intellectual is one who attempts to identify problems, reflects on them, and it does not shy away from asking hard and unpleasant questions." I didn't shy away. I explained.

[00:07:18]>> [laughter] >> "And who suggests, not imposes, some type of solution to the problem under his or her scrutiny."

[00:07:29]So, he concludes and says, "Therefore, I would argue that an overwhelming number of Somali intellectuals are simply university and college graduates."

[00:07:41]Because education which does not bring about a transformation in the consciousness of the educated is hardly beneficial to the individual, let alone to society.

[00:07:56]If you are educated and the education is not bringing any transformation in you, you still go back to your tribe. You still go back to the nonsense of calling me or Adon but I beat them but I which I don't understand.

[00:08:15]You see, but like you know, I'm not called Adon because I'm a professor.

[00:08:18]Everybody knows there's a little resource around me. Everybody will come.

[00:08:23]>> [laughter] >> Now, I'm removed from Adon to Adonhood.

[00:08:34]I'm not Sudan. ADON I'M >> [laughter] [applause] >> SO, THEREFORE, here I think the Chinese proverb I picked is is very handy here.

[00:08:49]It's useful. It says to know and not to act is not to know.

[00:08:58]If you know something, you don't act on it, THEN YOU DON'T know it.

[00:09:05]So, I wish we had enough time.

[00:09:14]Now, this is this is where I come to the character which I think Burhan most of it he covered. I I I thank him.

[00:09:24]It's the first time I I met I I meet him and I heard about I know most of us have actually seen this conversation online and it is really trending. Are Somalis black? Are Somalis Arab? Or is this an entire debate that is being misunderstood? Because if you've seen all of these on social media, you've probably uh seen viral clips of some Somali voices saying that they are not We are not black. We are Somalis. We are Arabs. And now the backlash is intense, uh especially from the black community because um some of them are saying, "Wait a minute. When it comes to rejecting uh black identity, some people say they're not black.

[00:10:09]But when political solidarity or immigration issue comes up, suddenly black solidarity matters. And that is the controversy. So, this conversation is way more complicated than social media than social media makes it look. So, today we are going to break this down, the facts, the history, and why identity debate is getting so heated.

[00:10:38]Are Somalis considered black? I'm sorry to be the one that sparks this debate, but it has to be done. I used to be of the opinion back in the day that of course we're black. Somalis, look at our skin tone. But as the years went on, my opinion started to change. If you're asking are Somalis skin tone black, then of course yes, our skin tone is. But then I realized as the years went on, it's nothing to do with skin tone because even people who are considered black come in different shades of black.

[00:11:02]I started to realize that when people ask whether Somalis are black, it's a reference to are Somalis the same as other fellow African countries such as Nigeria, Ghana, and the countries within West Africa. And then I thought, "No, we're not the same as those people."

[00:11:15]Yes, we're all from Africa, but a Moroccan isn't the same as a Nigerian, and a Nigerian isn't the same as a Somali. A Moroccan isn't considered black. A Nigerian is considered black.

[00:11:23]And a Somali, for some reason it sparks a big debate. You got Somalis who say, "We're not black. We didn't go through a slave trade." I don't think going through a slave trade is what makes you considered black first. and at the same time, why are we listening to Western societies who categorize people based on their skin tones? This is a white man.

[00:11:39]This is a black man. This is whatever.

[00:11:41]This is an Arab. So, my question is, because I still don't have a definitive answer, can Somalis consider themselves black?

[00:11:48]I mean, don't shoot the messenger. I'm not black. Stop calling us black, fam.

[00:11:53]Do we [ __ ] look black? Do I look black to you, like, bro?

[00:11:56]I'm not black, fam. I'm a Somali, bro.

[00:11:59]You get me, blood? We're not a [ __ ] black people, bro. Somalis are not black, and let me explain why. Looking at me right now, chat, am I black? I'm literally brown. I'm literally brown, bro. Think about it as well. Somalis are Arabs. We're in the Arab League. We speak the Arab language. We eat the Arab food. Bro, think about it as well. If a whole community doesn't regard themselves as black, they can't be black, bro. We literally can't be black, bro. Boogie, did you eat your brain cells?

[00:12:21]Really and truly, Somalis are Arabs, bro. Think about it, bro. We're in the Arab League. We speak the Arab language.

[00:12:26]Bro, tell me I'm not lying, bro. Black is just a social construct. Do not insult me or my ancestors by calling me black, okay? When the first European came to Somalia, they called us Caucasian, dark Caucasians. My hair is different, nose different, facial structure different, even voice tonality and voice frequency Well, Somalian is Arab, don't worry. No, no, no. Somalian is Arab. Yeah, they do.

[00:12:47]No.

[00:12:47]>> Yeah, they say Allahu Akbar and stuff.

[00:12:49]>> COME ON, BRO.

[00:12:50]>> [laughter] >> REALLY? WHAT, THAT THEIR QURAN DOESN'T COUNT? YEAH, THEY DO. They speak Arabic.

[00:12:53]I don't know Quran. They speak Arabic.

[00:12:55]He's coping.

[00:12:56]He doesn't want to be in the same boat.

[00:12:58]No, no, no, no. But, Somalis, they don't I don't know what the What's their official language? Keep Keep I'm the captain now.

[00:13:05]So, first of all, um, Somali are an ethnic group native native and are So, first of all, Somali is an ethnic group native to the Horn of Africa. That means Somalia, Ethiopia, Djibouti, and parts of Kenya. So, geographically, that part isn't called geographically, yes, Somalia is in Africa.

[00:13:32]And that part is not is not controversial at all, but here is where the debate starts. When Americans say black, they are usually talking about race. But in many other parts of the world, people identity first People identify first by ethnicity and tribe, nationality, religion, or language, not American racial categories. A Somali person may say, "I am Somali first." That doesn't automatically mean anti-black sentiment.

[00:14:07]There sometimes it means I don't identify using Western racial labels.

[00:14:15]But sometimes, you know, online rhetoric goes further, which is more where a controversy begins. Now, let's talk about the Arab part.

[00:14:28]Why Somalis say they are Arabs, a few reasons. Number one, Somalia is a part of Arab League. Number two, centuries of trade across the Red Sea connected Somalia with Arabia. Number three, Islam is central to Somalia society and to Somali society.

[00:14:50]And Islamic history is deeply tied to the Arab world. So, culturally, these are connections. And ethnically, but ethnically, that's where experts make distinction. Being Muslim doesn't automatically make someone Arab.

[00:15:11]Being in the Arab League um doesn't Being in the Arab League doesn't automatically make an ethnicity make an ethnicity Arab.

[00:15:23]And Somalia's indigenous population is Somali, not ethnically Arab, as our black heads uh definition.

[00:15:31]Now, Somali families may have Arab ancestry. That is possible. But saying all Somalis are Arabs, that's where the argument gets challenged.

[00:15:46]So, um So, Somali being uh uh being that they their origin is Africa, and they have said that they are Somali Arabs, it means they also uh reject being African, the Africanism.

[00:16:05]And they have faced backlash from it.

[00:16:08]And some African online pushback, too.

[00:16:11]Why? Because from their perspective, Somalia is in Africa, and Somalis are African. So, when they hear um rhetoric rejecting African identity, they hear it as confusing and even insulting. Again, that doesn't mean every Somali thinks that way, but online debate creates that perception.

[00:16:33]And perception fuels conflict.

[00:16:35]And um Well, we also need to understand what blackness mean, because this is where America complicates everything. Because black in the US is both the racial and political. It is history, slavery, civil rights, shared struggle, identity, community. But outside of US, race categories work differently. Someone can visibly can be visibly black in America, but identify differently in their home country. And that is not unique to Somalis. It happens with North Africans, the Caribbeans, the Latinos, the you know, mixed communities, immigrants generally. And American dress language doesn't always translate globally. And that's a huge reason this debate keeps exploding.

[00:17:30]So, the real controversy isn't biology.

[00:17:33]It is identity, solidarity, politics, and frankly, it's internet tribalism.

[00:17:39]People want clean boxes, black or not, African or Arab, us or them. Real identity doesn't always work like that. But online, complexity doesn't go viral. Conflicts does.

[00:17:56]So, now you guys, from the little explanation that I've given being Arab, African, and the blackness, what do you guys think? I'd love to hear from you in the comments section.

[00:18:09]Um are Somalis black? Are they African first? Is Somali in its own separate identity outside American race labels?

[00:18:19]Or is it an entire conversation that is being twisted by social media outreach?

[00:18:24]Drop your thoughts in the comment section below and kindly remember to keep it respectful because the debate clearly isn't going away.

[00:18:32]If you enjoyed this breakdown, kindly hit the subscribe button and join our family. Thank you so much for watching.

[00:18:39]I'll see you in the next one. Bye for now.